Most parents in the dark about how to help kids with food allergies

If you have a child or grandchild in school, at some point you’ve gotten “the letter” home.

You know, the one that says you should never send anything with peanuts to school — not peanut butter sandwiches, not peanut butter cookies… nothing.

And it’s all because childhood allergies to things like peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, dairy, and eggs are becoming a national (and deadly) epidemic.

But a new study shows that most parents aren’t being given even basic instructions on how to save their children’s lives when a severe allergic reaction hits.

And by learning just a few simple steps, you can prevent a child’s next allergy attack from becoming a full-blown catastrophe.

A failure to communicateSimon Katz was your typical 16-year-old who loved playing guitar and had big plans for the future.

But when he accidentally ate s’mores with peanuts at a homecoming event, things turned tragic fast. He went into anaphylactic shock and died later that night.

Sadly, these types of serious childhood allergies are becoming more and more common.

A study done by the CDC found that the numbers of children with food allergies grew by 50 percent from 1997 to 2011.

And some of those allergic kids are so sensitive that a mere touch by someone who ate peanuts or shellfish could put their lives at risk.

So you would think with this epidemic of food allergies going on, the medical community would be doing everything it can to prevent tragedies.

But, unfortunately, that’s not the case.

Dr. Ruchi Gupta from Northwestern University recently wrapped up a study where she interviewed nearly 900 parents of kids with food allergies.

And it turns out that more than 30 percent were never given even the basics about what to do by their child’s allergist in case of a serious allergic reaction.

Pediatricians were even worse. More than 60 percent of the parents said their child’s doctor didn’t teach them when or how to use an EpiPen — an auto-injector of epinephrine that can save someone’s life in a severe allergy attack.

“These points need to be hammered home by the physician at every visit,” Dr. Gupta said.

It’s hard to imagine that any doctor would send parents home without the simple information they need to care for — or even save — their child in the case of a severe allergic reaction. But according to Dr. Gupta, it’s happening all the time.

If a child you love has severe allergies — the kind that could cause potentially life-threatening anaphylactic shock — there are some basic things you can do to prevent a disaster, such as:

1. If you don’t know how to use the EpiPen — or don’t have confidence in your skills — schedule a doctor’s appointment right away to get trained. You don’t want to be fumbling around with directions during an emergency.
2. Make sure you have a written emergency plan for your child. It should have the child’s name, age and photo, and describe what foods they react to, what the symptoms of allergy attack are, and when to give epinephrine (you can see a sample one here). This is something you can give to babysitters, teachers, or anyone else who cares for your child.
3. Be on the lookout for symptoms of an allergic reaction. Mild symptoms can include an itchy mouth, hives or a mild itching on the skin, nausea and stomach pains. Some more severe symptoms are wheezing, shortness of breath, widespread hives and redness over the body, swelling of the tongue and/or lips.
4. Should any symptoms of an allergic reaction happen, lay the child flat, raise the legs and call 911. (The exception here is you don’t want to lay someone down on their back if they’re vomiting or having trouble breathing).
5. Even if the episode seems to pass, still make a visit to the ER to make sure you’re out of the woods. Most doctors will want to keep the child under observation for at least a few hours.